Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud emerges as new chief of TTP

With the appointment of Noor Wali, the leadership of TTP has been given in hands of Mehsud Taliban who pioneered the organization and led it for more than 8 years

June 23, 2018

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PESHAWAR: Banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has appointed Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud as the new head of the organization after the death of Mullah Fazlullah, who along with his four associates was killed in a US drone strike in Kunar province of Afghanistan ten days back.

With the appointment of Noor Wali, the leadership of TTP has been given in hands of Mehsud Taliban who pioneered the organization and led it for more than 8 years.

TTP in a statement has rejected reports that Qari Umar alias Ustad Fateh hailing from Swat district , was appointed as the successor of Mullah Fazlullah. The banned outfit confirmed that the death of Mullah Fazlullah in a US drone strike.

“Like his predecessors Baitullah Mehsud and Hakimullah Mehsud, Mullah Fazlullah was killed in a US drone strike at 11pm on the 27th Ramazan,” TTP’s central spokesperson Umar Khurasani said in a statement shared with media.

The spokesperson also confirmed Mufti Hazrat, has been appointed as the deputy ameer of the TTP.

Soon after the death of Mullah Fazlullah, Mufti Noor Wali was chosen as new ameer in a meeting TTP’s Central Shura. All militants groups affliated with TTP pledged allegiance to newly appointed head, according to the TTP statement.

Noor Wali was selected as predecessor of TTP deputy ameer, Khalid Mehsud alias Said Khan Sajna, after he was killed in US drone strike in Afghanistan’s Paktika province , where most of the Pakistani Taliban fighters had moved along with Haqqani network ever since the start of the Operation Zarb-e-Azab in Waziristan by the Pakistan Army in June 2014.

Belonging to South Waziristan Agency, Noor Wali is also author of a book Inqilab-e-Mehsud, The revolution of Mehsud.

Pakistan complained time and again to Afghan government and US forces that Mullah Fazlullah was using Afghan soil for launching terror attacks in Pakistan and demanded that he should be eliminated from afghan soil.